


I Missed You

by myracingthoughts



Series: Darcy Lewis Bingo [14]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Genre: F/M, Feelings Realization, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:01:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26934028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myracingthoughts/pseuds/myracingthoughts
Summary: If anyone asked Darcy Lewis just how she’d gotten Bruce to trust her, she wouldn’t have been able to say.Sometime between the random run-ins on the hallways, the hand-delivered cups of coffee when he was looking exceptionally exhausted, or the fact that she’d somehow become den mother to a floor full of scientists, Darcy had done what most had considered the impossible: befriended one Bruce (“don’t call me doctor”) Banner.
Relationships: Bruce Banner/Darcy Lewis
Series: Darcy Lewis Bingo [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1927495
Comments: 14
Kudos: 101
Collections: Darcy Lewis Bingo





	I Missed You

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written for Darcy Lewis Bingo and checks off box Y3 - Friends to Lovers.

If anyone asked Darcy Lewis just how she’d gotten Bruce to trust her, she wouldn’t have been able to say.

Sometime between the random run-ins on the hallways, the hand-delivered cups of coffee when he was looking exceptionally exhausted, or the fact that she’d somehow become den mother to a floor full of scientists, Darcy had done what most had considered the impossible: befriended one Bruce (“don’t call me doctor”) Banner.

Sure, he was a little shy at first and wasn’t quick to initiate conversation, but that was what Darcy excelled at: making awkward situations (at the very least) entertaining. So eventually, once he got used to her random outbursts, a penchant for sugary treats and over-caffeinated ramblings, he started to even smile at her blathering.

It was generous of him, really.

“Lunch?” Darcy poked her head into his lab, ignoring the stare of his coworkers as his eyes drifted up to hers with that crinkle on the edges of his eyes.

“I’ll meet you downstairs in five.”

It had started as a weekly routine with Jane —an attempt at getting her to see some locations _outside_ of her lab, maybe remind her there was a whole world out there and that the sun didn’t just exist in calculating gravitational pull. But now it was down to the two of them. Jane was too busy with her astrophysics research (read: her one true love) to do many outings these days. But Darcy would still grab her something more nutritious than a stick of gum on her way back to the Tower, so it wasn’t a total loss.

And as much as he’d probably disagree, Bruce was good company.

Some might have considered him a little skittish, always stopping shy of brushing shoulders with each other or reaching out for a tap on the shoulder, but it never bothered Darcy. She might have slipped up a couple of times, accidentally invading his personal bubble, but Bruce was too polite to say anything. So they walked side-by-side down the sidewalks of Manhattan, picking a new spot to settle down for a lunch break.

“This place has a lot of vegetarian options,” Darcy offered as they rounded the corner.

They took a table at the back of the restaurant, far enough from the windowed entrance to have some semblance of privacy. It wasn’t like Bruce would get flagged down on the sidewalks like Steve did, but she knew picking an out-of-the-way corner put him at ease. And she’d do anything to avoid the leg bouncing, finger-tapping nervous ticks she’d already seen in full force back at the lab.

She might have made the personal bubble mistake one too many times with Bruce, but at least she’d learned. And, to his credit, he was always very polite in correcting her. That throaty laugh and a handsome smile that she couldn’t help but mirror back at him.

Maybe he was even _too_ polite sometimes, making her wonder just how often she’d fudged the line between personable and uncomfortable when it came to Bruce.

She was a tactile person, after all. It was hard to break that habit.

Darcy set her purse in her lap and a worn paperback on the table before leafing through the menu. As reluctant as he was to admit it, Bruce was a sci-fi fan and a voracious fiction reader, so they frequently traded books back and forth. Darcy was currently finishing off _11/22/63_ while Bruce was long-done _Dark Matter_.

“I didn’t take you for a King fan,” Bruce said softly, nudging his chin towards the cover.

Darcy chuckled, “I love horror. Can’t say no to a good ‘80s slasher.”

“There were _good_ ‘80s slashers?” his tone was playful, mouth curved into a smile.

Darcy huffed dramatically, but couldn’t keep herself from laughing, “Shut up.”

The buzz of chatter in the restaurant provided a nice soundtrack, and she was thankful Bruce was just as content to people watch as she was. Theirs was a comfortable silence, occasionally looking up from their menu or novel to smile or toss an idea out there. It didn’t take long for the server to find them, weaving between the tables and chairs like a pro.

“Wine?” Darcy asked Bruce over her menu, reaching for the drink list.

Bruce crooked an eyebrow, smiling politely at the server before responding, “It’s _lunch_.”

“And?”

Was that supposed to mean something?

Darcy Lewis had lost her sense of shame somewhere during college, and honestly, she liked it better that way. So maybe she wasn’t the best judge of social norms, but she wasn’t about to turn down a glass of wine.

“I try not to,” Bruce settled tentatively.

“Like the same way I try not to have bagels for every meal of the day? Yeah, we’ll take two,” Darcy said confidently, neatly piling up the menus and handing them over.

Lunch was quiet, or as quiet as Darcy Lewis got, which was a lot of talking on her end and Bruce chiming in when he politely disagreed with a point she made. Occasionally he’d offer a tidbit from his lab work or yoga classes, a little insight into the quiet man with the wavy brown and peppered hair curling around his wire-framed glasses. His shirts were always a little wrinkled, the skin around his eyes a little crinkled, and if she said the right thing, there was this twinkle in his eyes as he took her in.

Before Darcy knew it, she was back at the lab, strolling in with a to-go box of nourishment for the resident scientist who barely bothered to lift her head.

“So who won the fight for the bill this time?” Jane asked without looking up from her paperwork.

No matter where they went for lunch, the server always only brought one bill at the end of their lunches —seriously, was this like a normal NYC thing? Darcy found it mind-boggling that they never even _asked_ — so the last five minutes were always a fight to the chivalrous end.

Jane knew this. She would have even been a participant on it (more of a cheerleader for Darcy, really) if she managed to pry herself away from her scientific implements for an hour.

“Me,” Darcy said triumphantly. “Though I might have played dirty and—“

“Went to the bathroom and paid for the bill on the way back?” Jane finished her sentence for her. Darcy may have pulled that move a few too many times before. “You two are cute together.”

Darcy stopped dead in her tracks, craning her head around to look at Jane like she’d just grown a few extra limbs.

“Together?” she all but screeched. “No, no, no, Jane. We’re just friends.”

Jane actually did bother to flick her eyes up at Darcy, shooting her most unconvinced glance at her lab coordinator.

“Mhm...” Jane seemed at a loss for words. “He looks really comfortable with you. And you already do all the stuff couples do. Dates—”

“Jane, that’s called lunch. Most people eat it.”

“—Movies—”

Darcy scoffed, “I binge watch more movies alone with JARVIS, and we’re not dating.”

“—You trade books—”

“Yeah, but I also do that with Pepper Potts. And the New York Public Library,” Darcy offered.

“—And he puts a blanket on you when you pass out in the lab.”

He’d sometimes wrap her in a cozy throw when she passed out on her desk on those long nights with Jane, science wrangling and making sure she at least got _some_ form of sleep before dawn.

Darcy crossed her arms over her chest, “I do that for you all the time!”

“Sure.” Jane shot her an incredulous look, “Tell yourself whatever you need to sleep at night. He _likes_ you.”

Darcy took her seat, not wanting to look her friend in the eyes. She wasn’t right. Jane couldn’t be right about this. Darcy was sure that she and Bruce were just colleagues, doing work-adjacent things, slightly outside work hours. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement to make sure neither of them ate alone (and only carbs) all week.

“Is that why you stopped coming to lunch with us?” Darcy asked across the lab.

Jane considered it for a moment, pen stalling in mid-air before resolutely replying, “No, I genuinely just hate stopping when I’m on a roll.”

Darcy snorted.

“But you’re always on a roll?”

“Exactly.”

The conversation festered in Darcy’s head all week. Bruce was away on some assignment —probably in Wakanda from what she could glean from Tony— which left her on her own for lunch all week. Those five days felt like five dozen, trapped in her thoughts and just all around miserable.

Darcy didn’t realize how much those lunches with Bruce did for her. It was Saturday by the time it settled in, those little things she looked forward to. This light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, that chance to try to get him to snort into his drink or pick lettuce off his lapel. That crinkly thing his nose did when he smiled really wide—

Holy shit. She liked him. Like, _liked_ him, liked him.

Darcy liked Bruce, more than just friends.

She didn’t know what to do with this new information. How obvious had it been? It must have been Times Square billboard-sized obvious if _Jane_ had already caught on.

How could she have missed this?

Somewhere in the movie nights and book trades and all that time spent breaking down the walls he’d try to put between him and anyone else, Darcy had glossed over this glaring detail. Sure, Bruce liked to try to keep people at arm’s length, and yes, Darcy was fond of trying to see just how far she could push boundaries (any boundaries, really), but this was uncharted territory.

Did he even feel the same way? Or was he just humouring her?

And so when JARVIS pinged Darcy to let her know Bruce was back in the building and out of his room, she couldn’t let herself sit with those thoughts in her head any longer.

Like everything in Darcy Lewis’s strange and fantastical life, she had to face this head-on. 

That’s just who she was as a person.

The elevator opened on the deserted residential floor. Perfect, no witnesses. Darcy found him in the kitchen, standing by a kettle and reaching up towards tea boxes.

“Hey, Bruce.”

He stumbled a bit, accidentally knocking over a box of sachets with a chuckle, “I didn’t expect to see you there. Looking for someone?”

“I missed you,” Darcy said.

Bruce quirked an eyebrow.

“At lunch,” Darcy added a little too quickly. “I missed you at lunch this week.”

Bruce smiled, “I missed that too. Do you want some tea? I think I boiled enough water for two.”

Darcy nodded, and before he could ask what kind, she added, “Surprise me. I trust your taste.”

He puttered around the kitchen as Darcy nestled against the kitchen island, leaning over as she watched him. Really watched him. He carefully grabbed a mug and a tea bag and set it next to his on the counter. As much as she wanted desperately to vomit her feelings, she couldn’t find the right way to do it. At least the whistle of the kettle interrupted the silence long enough for Bruce to wander over and pass her the mug.

His fingers brushed against hers in the exchange, the briefest touch spreading sparks up her arms.

She was thinking too hard about this. It was official. Her heart was beating in her ears as she met his eyes. Those warm brown eyes she’d stared at from across bistro tables for months.

“Are you alright?” Bruce asked, setting his mug down on the counter. “You look a little—”

“Brucewillyougooutwithme?”

It all came out as one word, eyes barely opened as she braced for the inevitable ‘no’ that was sure to follow. But the look on his face wasn’t disappointment or shock, or even happiness; it was confusion. Darcy’s face heated up to volcanic levels as she stared at him helplessly.

Bruce blinked, “Pardon?”

Taking a deep breath to settle her nerves, Darcy tried again, “Bruce. Will you go out with me? Sometime?”

“To make up for lunch?” he asked, the crease between his eyes deepening slightly.

Darcy huffed a laugh, “Not exactly. Maybe as more than colleagues?” The silence hung in the air a beat longer than she’d like, so she quickly added, “If that’s even in the realm of possibility because I totally get it if you don’t want to, I mean—”

“Darcy.”

She clapped her lips shut, staring at Bruce with wide eyes, blood thumping in her ears. He had a smile on his face, but she wasn’t sure if he was just being polite or if he was genuinely pleased with the idea, so she held her breath and waited.

“I would love to take you out to dinner,” Bruce said in his softest tone. “As more than colleagues, even.”

The relieved sigh that escaped Darcy’s lips might have even been embarrassing under different circumstances, but she couldn’t stop the smile spreading across her face. “Really?”

“Really. We can even split a bottle of wine.”

Taking a swig of the perfectly brewed chai Bruce had picked out for her —her favourite— she gave him a wry grin, taking in the way his eyes swept across her face. Probably taking in the blush stretching from her cheeks to her chest at the somewhat embarrassing situation.

But if this was the result, she wouldn’t have had it any other way.

“Sounds like a date.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading. All comments, kudos and bookmarks are loved and cherished.
> 
> You can also find me on [tumblr](https://pasmonblog.tumblr.com/), where I post comic book content, work updates, and behind-the-scenes commentary. I also take [prompts](https://pasmonblog.tumblr.com/prompts).


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